Hey,
For people who want to know more about Viki, here’s the interview from 2012
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2012-04-25/interview-razmig-hovaghimian-co-founder-and-ceo-of-viki.com
A video interview of Viki co-founder in 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/e9b10b3a-937b-4d12-aa56-e63d7f181214
WOW, what a behind the scenes look into Viki. Sure explains a lot of things I was not aware of. The biggest being Viki is no-for-profit organization and how it started as a college level class project. Sure gives an insight of how content starts on Viki then gets sold onto other streaming sites. I had been wondering about that interconnection. This interconnection is locking us out of other countries as other streaming sites take off to grab the market. What is nice about Viki was it was opening it to all, regardless of language or country. I honestly wouldn’t mind if Viki became for profit and keep things open to all, regardless of country or language, something that for profit companies are taking away from us fans.
It was really informative to know from where Viki was born, what were the former ideas, their model, their advantages, the difficulties they have faced and the ones they still face today.
What I really appreciate was this :
“So for us, really, we want the best experience. We want the fans to enjoy the shows and we want the content owners to realize they’re luring new fans that can see it in different languages.”
“We want this to travel far and wide, again picked by the fans and for the fans there. So I think in doing that we’re increasing the size of the pie and getting it introduced and expanded for everyone involved in the process.”
“They [Crunchyroll] have built a fantastic site for fans. And it works really well with us, because that’s what we’re doing, by the fans and for the fans.”
I really like their motto xd
The journalist who asks questions that might upset “generally it means you’re exploiting fan labor.[…] In other places that’s all paid work.” xd
I think that the journalist and the co-founder were clear about Viki coming from a non-profit motivation, but it’s still a capitalist company. They can’t live from water in movies industry, entertainment industry where there’s a whole economic chain.
The slight difference maybe is that they take more fans opinion into account and that one of the former objective is to share without physical boundaries (I think of Facebook).
“We’re trying to build a model here that works for the fans and the content owners alike, and we feel that its additive, and if we can find that right balance, it works. We don’t tell any of the content owners that, you know, this is not a business at the end of the day, because they wanna go to other markets, and we don’t tell the fans that we are a non-profit either. We say that, with their help, we’re trying to get this content to travel to all these countries.”
Since the article @piranna posted stated Viki was non-for-profit, I googled to find their board of directors and was delivered another shocker. Viki is owned by Rakuten, Inc., a global internet service provider company, who acquired Viki in 2013.
http://allthingsd.com/20130901/exclusive-japans-rakuten-acquires-viki-video-site-for-200-million/
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/
https://www.techinasia.com/viki-after-rakuten-acquisition
After reading these articles, I’m left to wonder what and where is Viki’s growth today for loyal fans like us in terms of service, especially as we see less and less being offered on Viki these days?
Hey, just in case of, don’t talk about money here
Can you remove your links please ? I’m sorry to ask you this but I don’t want you or I being punished because of talking about that.
Isn’t there such a thing called ‘transparency’? One of the greatest things about Viki is it has always been transparent to its users, especially as their growth is through its many volunteers. Honesty on all planes will help all of us meet our needs if we see the honest picture and all the pieces of the puzzle.
It’s not that it’s not interesting, on the contrary. But I don’t want to talk about money or to have questions or anwers concerning this other subject in a post that I have created xd
I’m really sorry to have to ask this, I know that it’s quite rude to ask you to remove it from this post. I sincerely apologize about it and if we were on other websites, I would talk about it with you but not here unfortunately. It’s up to you if you want to talk about the articles that you found, you can always create your topic.
About transparency, a company is never completely transparent to their customers because of security, competitors, partners and other reasons that they may have.
Moreoever, we can’t say that they tell us in details. Just a look in their politics to see that they have the right to not explain anything to us about some subjects. We did agree to these suscribing conditions whatever the reason is.
Thank you for your answer and expressing your pov. It was great to know that you were interested as I was in Viki creation and in the company for who we contribute.
Honestly, if the interview you posted is about Viki being a non-profit company (didn’t watch the video yet) then it’s only legit to provide links to show that is not anymore. Why make it seem like this site is owned by saints? 
It’s no secret that Viki is owned by Rakuten now, especially since the “R” of Rakuten is placed on the left side of the Viki logo. Also they made the announcement some when Rakuten took over, that’s not even a secret. So I honestly don’t get which rules you are talking about, this has all been out in the open 
If there is one thing I do not like about the discussions it’s the “you’re not supposed to talk about it”. Yes, you are if it’s not something like dragging someone in the mud for no reason. Also the links seem legit and there are no bad things or conspiracy theories, one link is even the official website of Viki’s owner, so… I hope I didn’t offend you, but Viki is making profit (or is owned by a profit making company) and that’s out in the open and of course contributors need to know this fact.
I think I’m being misunderstood here xd
The article I posted was an interview from the co-founder of Viki, he talks from an entrepreneur stance, he talks in an economical speech, there are questions about profit of his company. The article doesn’t depict Viki as an NGO or an association but as a capitalist company from 2012.
I agree that it works like a profit company from the beginning, the co-founder says it so (cf. 2nd comment I wrote), even though the fact that we are contributing is a particularity comparing to a classical capitalist company.
So yea, of course, you’re right, there’s no charity in this, nor saints. The article clearly doesn’t say this, so I am aware.
There is no transformation from a non profit to a profit company since it’s a profit company in its creation (cf. article and video)
There are 2 separate things that are on my mind :
1°) First, the topic is an article and a video talking about Viki at its beginning in 2012 and mid 2013. I just wanted to share something about Viki when it was in its early stage from the point of view of the co-founder. What were his ideas, what did he think about it ? I was interested in the economical speech, strategy and his vision of this.
I did purposely pick this one because no money was on this article and because it was complete. I don’t think that this is my place to talk about money related to this company, that I should and that I want to talk about money on this post on the website of this same company.
2°) If the topic morphs into talking about development of Viki over the past few years, how much money, who and why, details etc. The topic might go elsewhere from its original subject and this is another topic where I don’t want my original topic to go because of personal reserves.
I can’t control the flow. I can’t control what people will want to talk about later on this post (proof is that I didn’t know that there will be answers with links and numbers, I didn’t think about it), I don’t know if there are gonna be talks about money and details, critics or not, analysed or not basing on these links and future related links in answer. I don’t know how it would be written. I can’t assure you anything and you can’t assure me anything because we are not employees. So I prefer to not take this risk and say beforehands that if there are talks about it, it’s better to make their own post. I don’t forbid them to post their articles and talk about it, if they want, they can just make one, but I won’t be the one who initiated it, the one who seems to agree to where the post goes or someone linked to this while this is not something that I want to participate in. I won’t share my responsability in where it will go.
Is it to much to ask to create another topic and talk there ?
So, I didn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about the acquisition of Viki by Rakuten (I did some purchase on a Rakuten company long time ago, so I know this company when I saw the R logo when suscribing). I just think that if we are gonna talk about details about it with money involved and our opinions on this, please let me out of this, understanding my right to withdrawal. So if you want to talk about details, you are free to make your own post, but respect my choice to not participate in this because of personal reserves even if you think that I shouldn’t have these reserves.
Again, I’m sorry to ask to put the links elsewhere, but it’s always possible to share them on another post.
I’m not psycho thanks xd but I won’t take this risk or the freedom to talk about it here when we are mere contributors and not decision-makers. This is not my place here.
Thank you for understanding my reluctance and respect it.
Thank you for your povs on this, I appreciated it. But understand that if I feel that I don’t want to take this risk, you can’t force me even if you don’t share my reasons for my withdrawal.
I’m really sorry for this, normally I’ve never asked someone to delete their answers, I’m also sorry for talking like this (I sound crazy xd) but I don’t know another way to tell what is on my mind.
Food for thought…
Maybe not answering will stop things in the bud.
I thought the first couple answers were fine. The topic drifted when the request of not posting something.
Honestly, I think that in itself is funny.
I prefer you take it with humour than other feelings so it’s cool 
I also think that is funny 
We are not ill intentionned.
I did hesitate before answering you but since my name was mentionned in your post, I didn’t know if you wanted an answer from me. I thought that maybe you were waiting for an answer, so I prefer to reply instead of not replying in case of something was expected because of simple courtesy (not the easy choice, I know 
). That’s the main reason I answered instead of not answering.
And if I replied, I was stuck between don’t ask or ask to remove. And since I don’t feel at ease with this, I prefer to say it honneslty and ask to remove (it’s 1st and 3rd links) than keeping answering. The reason I ask for removal is also that if people wanted to talk about the 1st interview, I have the possibility to answer. But if people come and go talk about something more including why, who, money, and the topic is closed whatever the reason is. There’s no possibility to answer anymore to 1st interview nor to anything. That’s why if you still wanted to talk about it, another topic would have not impacted this topic and I wouldn’t share responsability by answering in this topic.
Yeah, I could have stayed silent.
I hope you don’t mind and it’s no big deal for you, I prefer to inform you than not saying anything that I will ask to close this topic so there’s no problem anymore. Of course, if you stil want to talk about your articles, feel free to post a new topic, I won’t have a say in this. So thanks for your honnest reply which brought me to answer with honnesty too.
Closed by request. If you’d like to discuss this topic more, please start a new thread.